Welcome to New York
by You Can Call Me Effie
Summary: Somehow, Maria gets roped into stalking Michelle's crush with her. Yes, she does know it's a bad idea.


Maria Juarez picked at the food on her tray, wondering not for the first time how a school this high tech, with an advanced lab and moving lockers, could have such terrible school lunches.

Today was Sloppy Joe Day.

Sloppy Joes were not supposed to be green.

Maria sighed and pushed her tray away, glancing around her before turning her attention to the people at her table.

Well, technically it was _their_ table, but whatever.

Peter Parker and Ned Leeds were what most people at Midtown Academy of Science called 'nerds'. This never made sense to Maria. As far as she was concerned, everyone at their school was a nerd. It was a science school. It was a given.

Peter Parker ( _picked a peck of pickled peppers—no, Maria_ ) was a short-ish guy with a high pitched voice and one of the most adorable faces Maria had ever seen that didn't belong to someone below four years old. He wore nerdy tshirts and big cardigans and was practically in love with Liz Allen. One time, she heard him and Ned arguing over whether she or Princess Leia were hotter and Peter _actually_ said Liz.

That's nerd love, right there.

Sometimes she had to physically stop herself from giving the kid a hug. The only things that stopped her were society, the probability of making him uncomfortable, and the fact that Michelle would judge her so hard for it.

Ned Leeds was a heavy set guy with a nice smile and killer comedic timing, which at times made it difficult for Maria to eavesdrop discreetly. Michelle always gave her judgmental looks when she accidentally let out an amused noise and had to cover it with a cough or a sneeze. Maria usually stuck her tongue out at her. It wasn't her fault she couldn't keep up that whole stoic, Iron Lady exterior Michelle had.

Maria had a very expressive face, okay.

Speaking of, Michelle Jones was a curly-haired girl who always had her head in a book, unless, of course, she was delivering admittedly hilarious one-liners to either Maria or the other two people at the table. Flash Thomson told her she was pretty once in ninth grade and she had gone on a tangent about beauty being a social construct and the male species thinking they could just compliment a woman and she'd just fall at his feet.

Maria would be lying if she said she didn't find her intimidating.

However, Michelle and Maria shared one common hobby; collecting information.

Michelle knew who cheated in their entrance exams.

Maria knew who cheated on their boyfriends or girlfriends.

Michelle knew Maria was bisexual.

Maria knew Michelle had had a thing for Peter Parker since the seventh grade and that Ned had a thing for Betty the Senior.

Michelle knew the birth dates and death dates of everyone from Harriet Tubman to Frieda Kahlo.

Maria knew that Sylvia Plath was a racist anti-Semitic and that Christopher Columbus most likely fucked a goat and caught syphilis.

Michelle knew those things too.

They both knew Peter Parker was hiding something.

~-•-~

"I really don't understand why you want to meet up with me when we're not even friends."

"Who said we're not friends?"

"You did. Many times."

Michelle raised an eyebrow and stopped thumbing through her notebook. "Did I?"

Maria looked at her exasperatedly. " _Yes_."

The librarian shushed them.

Michelle gave her a judgmental look.

Maria stuck her tongue out.

Michelle sighed. "Look, we both know something's up with Parker. Not that I care, but it's distracting."

"Oh no, you don't care at all."

She ignored the interjection. "So, since you seem to be the only other person here with half a brain, I've decided you're going to help me figure this out."

Maria looked at her incredulously. "Dude, you can't just decide things for me?"

"Don't call me dude, it erases my femininity."

"Whatever. Look, for all we know, he could just be mooning over Liz still and that's why he's been acting weird."

Michelle scoffed. "You think Liz is the reason he suddenly has muscles?"

"Maybe he's trying to impress her?"

Michelle made a frustrated noise and dropped her pen on the table. "What about him quitting robotics club and marching band? He loves marching band. Probably. Not that I care."

Maria sighed and leaned back in her chair, blowing her straight brown hair out of her face. "Cut the crap, Michelle, I know you like him. You know I know you like him. Most of the decathlon team at least _suspects_ that you like him. Are you sure you're not just jealous that he got kinda hot and super buff for Liz?"

Michelle stared at her for a moment before packing up her things and standing up. "This was a bad idea, bye."

"Michelle."

"Good-bye."

Maria groaned and followed her out the library, ignoring the librarian's disapproving look. "Michelle, wait, I'm sorry."

"No, you're not."

"No, I'm not."

Michelle scoffed and walked faster.

Maria huffed and rolled her eyes, hurrying to catch up when Michelle crossed the street. "But!"

Michelle turned toward her when they got to the opposite light and crossed her arms. "But?"

Maria held up a hand and tried to catch her breath. "Dude, you're legs are so long, holy shit, I can't breathe."

Michelle was unimpressed. "If that's all…"

"I wanna help."

Michelle stared at her for a moment before nodding and walking away. "Call your mom and tell her you're eating dinner with me tonight."

Maria rolled her eyes and followed her. "My mom is Mexican, Michelle, that shit isn't gonna fly with her."

Michelle clicked her tongue and faced her again. "Alright. Where do you suggest?"

"Library. Whenever you don't have decathlon practice."

"No offense, but I'm pretty sure the librarian hates you—AY, WATCH IT!"

Maria sidestepped the pedestrian who walked into Michelle and looked at her phone. "On that note, I gotta go. We live in buildings next to each other. Meet me on the fire escape?"

Michelle rolled her eyes and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Whatever, as long as we actually find out what's up with Parker."

"Not that you care."

"Right. I gotta go. There's a free the nipple protest off main."

Maria nodded. "Alright, go do good. The movies skip the boring planning parts, huh?"

"Yep."


End file.
